your day at work?

There was an interminable amount of data loading. I also went to a departmental lunch, where I sipped tea and watched everyone else eat chips while we got a thrilling presentation on the work flow for the Help Desk.

Shoot me now.

I spent almost the whole day checking the date of documents in this database against the date of documents in that database, and noting when they weren't identical. Then the computer spits out some fancy report!

After you with the gun, Jes!!!

But - I'm now on holidays until next Monday, scarily heading in the direction of da wabbit!

Yesterday was hole-y Tuesday. Today a manager will come around with a scanner checking for "holes" -- places on shelves without product even though his scanner shows there is stock in inventory. So I filled where I could (some stock just came in on a truck and I won't see it for days as receiving is a madhouse with all the Christmas crap coming in.
At lunchtime I learned that a long time employee (29 years) was fired over the weekend as someone had to take the fall for a shipping mistake and someone had it in for her. I really liked her. She didn't suffer fools gladly and had an acerbic wit. I always found her more than competent when I needed help. I suppose that made her quite a threat to the guys in the back. The company will of course save money by hiring someone with no experience and even less people skills to replace her....(Less than a month 'til Xmas, she worked 7 days a week at 2 jobs to pay a mortgage and run a clunker as she was single. Unfortunately I've seen this time and time again in retail. If I thought this was really going to be my life it wouldn't be worth living.)
So it was with hate in my heart that I spent the afternoon designing sale ends for the weekend sales. Most of last weekend's sale crap didn't sell. (It's crap and people are cutting back.) I have to "work it in" to my regular merchandise as the warehouse has no where to put it and today I'll continue piling crap from China attractively on sale ends in hopes that we'll make some money and I'll keep getting hours.

(When I had only been at my job a couple of weeks the owner approached me and asked how I was enjoying it. I was like a deer in the headlights. Was he just being disingenuous? Was he some sort of holy fool? I was brought up to be polite and finally stammered "it's okay". Jesus, what an idiot. They pay us less than $10/hour, work us all hours of the day and night. Does he think we do it for love?)

Attended a seminar, and while on my way there, lost my wallet in the parking lot, not discovering it was missing until I pulled it out to pay for something a couple of hours later. I know I had it in the PL because I had to pull out $5 for the parking thingie.

Was going to leave so I could start working on reporting my credit cards, etc. missing, and got a call from Wally saying someone had found it, called the number on my car insurance card...the insurance company called him...hooked the two of them up, and the guy returned my wallet!

Wally tried to give him $50, but the guy kept refusing. Finally he said "Well, I'll take $5 because otherwise I'm broke." Wally said, "well ****, you could've just taken the $40 dollars in the wallet, so here, take the $50...so he did.

Then, during lunch, I flared up a conversation with a woman after I offered her my cookie (she declined), and while talking discovered she was a nurse with 5 years experience in dialysis, who lived near a clinic we are just finishing. Prior to finding this out, things we had talked about had made me aware she was a very professional person with a lot of heart. We're going to talk today about setting up an interview.

Oh, and during the course of our talking about the job, she mentioned this was a great thing to be happening on her birthday....It was my birthday yesterday too!

I signed up for a course for increasing my knowledge about the stock market, which I'm looking foward to very much.

I listened to speakers, right there in person....Colin Powell (he is a REALLY funny man, who'd have thunk it?) Suze Orman, Rudy Guliani, etc.

very cool day.

i go to get my wallet today.. if i dont i have to cancel my debit card cuz i get paid tonight..

lets hope i get it back! lol, on a sidenote my dog needs a home, this shouldnt be a big deal whatsoever, not a big deal at all..

/sarcasm

Two odd errors in data loading. No one seems to know why the biggest source is doubling itself. This means I have to grind everything to a screeching halt so that I can back the data out. This could take the better part of a day. I'll do it on Friday.

The other error is even more mysterious. No one knows why a file loads just fine if it has one name, but doesn't if it's got one of two other names. It is one of the grand mysteries of life so I will probably need to talk to the vendor tomorrow. That will take a while, too.

Tomorrow evening/afternoon is the office end of year party at the Hard Rock Café. Then next week we have an in-office party where you bring food and I think it's also a Yankee swap. I hope it is, as I have an Xmas mug (what do I want from an Xmas mug?) that weighs about 70 lbs. that I want to unload. I also bought a picture frame to give if I need to. Not sure if cards are passed around in this office. They were in my last two places o' work but this place seems more reserved. I dunno.

Ugh. Sometimes people are blind. I'm spent.

yay, today i got to walk about halfway across the town, then back again! because my dads methhead friend stole all of my change, this trip was to retrieve my wallet, which i found out i have to go to the other side of town!
i was 30 minutes late and now face being terminated, which i hope doesnt happen.

i dont know how i would make it if that happened, total trip time, 4-5 hours.

but fortunately somone gave me a ride home, yay!

old ladies are so nice to me

Hi TC. I can really relate to what you're saying, as I've been working in a retail store (Dollar Giant, up to $5 version) since last July. They are truly crap employers. For December, they've increased the store hours slightly, but the store manager hasn't been given an increase in his labour budget to deal with this. So, the obvious happens - a slight cutback in employees' hours, on a rotating basis. Go figure, with Christmas being the busiest time of the year!

I got here at about 9 and I peeled a bunch of potatoes and while they were boiling, I blanched some broccoli- unloaded the dishwasher- swept the floor- and put the money in the till.

Then when my helper arrived - I went to the butcher and to the shop.

Then I made breakfast for my new friend Carlos - who I met yesterday when he stopped by for a bacon sandwich - he brought his mom with him today. She had egg on toast and he had eggs, pancakes, sausage and bacon- he said, 'This is the most beautiful breakfast I've ever had - I've never had pancakes with sausage and bacon before.' That was a lovely compliment.

Then I made stir-fry- cooked rice and marinated the chicken, cut up peppers.

Then lunch hit. Sid was first - he asked, 'What am I having today?' He's rather an adventurous eater and always wants the special - something different. I said, 'Try some of these potato pancakes so you can tell me how they are,' so he did.
Jonathan had come by to play scrabble (we thought it would be slow because the weather was supposed to be bad - but it turned out to be a nice day for the most part and we were really busy).
So no scrabble, but he had stir-fry and I had put the last serving aside for myself (I was determined to eat a real lunch today) but Pete came in and ordered it.

So after the first wave left, I cooked myself a potato cake and served it to myself with a piece of ham and a fried egg - I might have that every day now- it was awesome.

Then I made an apple crumble and cleaned the kitchen.

Then my friend (who shall remain nameless) who's been banned from the pubs in town (verbal abuse or something- they all sent him this letter) came in for his diet coke and sausage and mash...he comes in twice a day...everyday....he says, 'It's easier to talk in here than in the pub anyway - bunch of yelling yobs over there'...I just smiled and nodded and thought, 'Yeah, but didn't you get kicked out for being a yelling yob? (or something- he didn't tell me the details, except to explain that it was verbal and not physical (I think he thought I'd be afraid of him or something- I'm not - he's a nice guy- just a little mixed up).

Then Jack came in and left after ingesting his daily toasted tea cake.

Then this guy whose last name is Cameron came in for eggs and chips. My mom's maiden name was Cameron- so we had a long discussion about that and he'd just gotten back from a month in New Zealand (where he biked around) so he told me all about that and then we talked about his travels around the US and his job (he does the same thing my dad did).

Then I cleaned up the kitchen again...and swept the floor again...took the money out of the till and am about to close up and go home and do some baking and make a lasagne for tomorrow.

I really love my job...I'm meeting so many nice people. I get to indulge my creativity by cooking and decorating. I can listen to music all day and talk to interesting people, play backgammon or scrabble when it's slow. This job really suits me in terms of my interests, skills and personality. At first I thought I'd miss teaching too much - but now I feel that if I sold this place - I'd miss this place and the people too much. I think I'm gonna be in this job for a while.

you made me hungry just thinking about it, heh

Very quiet at the Widget Factory.

After months of late hours and weekends, we finally got the last Widget for the
P***** contact in the box and on the truck. The boss took us to lunch at
Longhorn (urp!). I've got some low-key software installation stuff this p.m. and
then home at a reasonable hour. Life is good.

In another week or so there'll be a new crisis, I've no doubt.

Have tried to keep myself closed in my office today because there are about 12 social workers here for a meeting.

They are nice as far as being individuals, but IMO social workers can be so daft when they gather in a herd.

Lots of data messes today (still going on, actually). Mostly cleaned up; clean up will conclude tomorrow -- hopefully; if not, a DBA gets involved -- then reloading next week. Verra annoying. Plus we had to send out notifications to the users. Twice, coming on the heels of once yesterday.

Tonight is the bigger company end of year party, at the Hard Rock Café. I'm giving my drink coupons to the DBAs.

Adding disk to clustered filestems. The pure joy.

I'd rather be hunting.

The veteran guidance counselor named the parental behavior I've been fielding "HARRASSMENT"! No wonder I feel like poop.

In the morning, my co-facilitator, ex-boss, and ex-executive director boarded a subway, then a bus towards Wannsee Conference house.
I was thinking about the workshop for a long time, bit nervous. It's a heavy topic, for educators who are struggling with teaching some topics, particularly Holocaust, to increasingly diverse classrooms.
I was ready for the workshop...but forgot to prepare myself emotionally for the building itself. Wannsee house is where a conference on the Final Solution took place in 1942.
When we approached the house, it looked like from some strange dream. Beautiful house in a well kept rose garden, overlooking a lake. Inside nice warm wooden floors and an elaborate chandelier, carved hand railings... Couldn't help thinking 'Eichmann touched this railing, walked here, sat here...' Not an easy atmosphere to start a workshop for educators on how to teach Holocaust to Muslims.

Interesting, in downtown Albuquerque there is a Halocaust museum, not something one would think to find in Albuquerque New Mexico.

today i realized i lack enthusiasm, no wonder.

and the cute manager , hates me. lol. everytime i walk by her i see that look..

a lot ofv things fell today, luckily i caught them, it felt weird tho catching something before it almost hits the ground and the person sees it and is like wow hey cool nice catch! every single time. and the cashier behind me is like hahah man ur fast.

the holocaust, they should get a name like that for the north and south americans, there is probably one already but eh..

todays lesson, enthusiasm leads to , enthusiasm, i hate enthusiasm

**** enthusiasm. thats the ket to some of my problems socially, is thta i (think anyways) that i am way to cold, like a blank iron plate, or a rock or something.

good thing i dont care for anymore friends than i already have, i just wont be the life of the party,big deal, yay!

By the way, i think i MIGHT be dyslexic for real, dyslexia lol reminded me, yesterday a girl came up to the register and i gave her something like 20.48 cents, and i said 20 and 84 cents, and she said did u say 84 or 48? im dyslexic, and i was like 84,no i said 48 u need 84, wait wait wait, okay its 48 cents but i said 84.. there u go.

ive did that like 9 times in 2 weeks, i think dyslexia is genetic tho? ehh, weird.

she was like my dyslexia must be contagious